Tunisian plane lands in Baghdad

A Tunisair plane with doctors and medical aid on board landed in Baghdad on Wednesday, in the latest Arab solidarity flight against decade-old sanctions.

A Tunisair plane with doctors and medical aid on board landed in Baghdad on Wednesday, in the latest Arab solidarity flight against decade-old sanctions, Iraq's official news agency INA said.

Aboard the Airbus were a team of 20 surgeons and ophthalmologists as well as a cargo of medicines and medical equipment and Tunisia's national football team, which is to play a friendly match in Baghdad.

Jordanian, Yemeni and Moroccan planes have also landed at Saddam International Airport since September 27, in a wave of flights to test a UN air embargo, part of a sanctions regime imposed on Iraq for invading Kuwait in 1990.

The Arab initiatives follow Russian and French flights to Iraq since the airport was reopened in mid-August. Paris and Moscow notified the UN sanctions committee but did not await clearance unlike the Arab flights.

Tunisian officials said the sanctions committee had been "notified" of the latest flight and that a second was planned for October 15. – (AFP)